The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 (NEMMP 2020) seeks to put 4 to 5 million electric two-wheelers on the road by 2020.

The previous incentives ended in March 2012. Since then, sales of electric vehicles collapsed from 100,000 units in 2011-12 to 21,000 units in 2013-14. The early Light Electric Vehicles (LEV’s) consisting of scooters, bikes and motorcycles were also plagued by poor quality and first generation lead-acid battery technology imported from China. They also had a high cost and a short life span.

Today, what is left of the LEV’s industry is more advanced technologically. Sohinder Gill, CEO od Hero Electric and Director of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) indicated recently that out of the 65 manufacturers of electric vehicles a few years ago, only 10 are still in business. Therefore NEMMP 2020 comes at a crucial time for the Indian industry.

We have seen in our past articles on Hero and Mahindra that these Indian firms have numerous projects of electric two-wheelers and with the help of incentives in their domestic market they have the potential to become major players in LEV market.